The leaked data contains vehicle number plates, crime reports, PII, investigation reports, etc. Zwijndrecht police responded to the media, saying that it was a human error, and are informing the concerned persons. People affected by this leak are advised to change their sensitive records for good.
Hitting Police Instead of a Municipality
The current leak regarding Zwijndrecht police was actually aimed at the Zwijndrecht municipality, but the Ragnar Locker gang instead hit the local police in their process. Well, after a prolonged time, the hackers have now leaked the stolen data on their darknet website. While it didn’t impact the whole of Belgium’s police, it did concern thousands of people belonging to the Zwijndrecht municipality. As reported by the local media initially, the data contained records from 2006 to September 2022, with thousands of files containing the car number plates, fines, crime reports, PII, investigation reports, etc. – exposing the ones who reported crime and also hindering the ongoing investigations. Further, the metadata of telecom service subscribers and SMS of people under a secret police investigation is found. The dump even included traffic camera footage – exposing the whereabouts of individuals at specific dates and times. The Zwijndrecht police responded to media reports on their Facebook by downplaying the incident, calling it due to a human error, and they are now contacting all exposed individuals to inform them about the incident. Well, it was termed the largest law-enforcement leak in Belgium’s history and will impact the country as never before. The nation’s data protection office is yet to open an investigation in this case, while the prosecutor has started criminal proceedings pointing at the hacking incident itself.
